Bloomfield Closes Town Pool After Defects Found

By
Stephanie Kushnir

Posted May 30, 2012

Ducks may be the only ones to use Bloomfield's swimming pool this year.

The Bloomfield Town Council has voted not to open the town’s swimming pool for the season, but unlike in other cities in recent years, the reason isn’t cost.

Town Board President Eric Harrah says that there is concern about the pool’s structural integrity. He says the board decided it’s in the community’s best interest for the pool to be professionally checked.

“Our goal is to have a pool in Bloomfield. It’s not our goal to close the pool, but the main thing is it has to be safe for the children and anybody else using it,” Harrah says.

In 2007, an engineering firm had deemed the pool unsafe and said it should not be open to the public. After repairs were made, it was reopened in 2008. The council recently hired Midwest Engineers, Inc. for a flat rate of $5000, to conduct another full inspection of the pool. Harrah says the contractor will be asked to determine whether the four-year old repairs were adequate and whether new concerns have arisen since the most recent fixes were put in place.

“After that time in ’08 when I was not on the board, there was a pool board formed and they did some repairs on it, but this time there’s still concern,” he says. “We thought it would be fair to the pool board and all of the town of Bloomfield to have it professionally checked out.”

Harrah says the pool is 47 years old and the town only gained control over it eight to ten years ago.

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